About me

This blogname was derived from the novel The Secret Life Of Saeed The Pessoptimist by the Palestinian Israeli Emile Habiby: absurdism as weapon against the (ir)realities of daily life in Palestine/Israel. (The subtitle is from a book by Dutch author Renate Rubinstein. It could as well be my motto).
My real name is Martin (Maarten Jan) Hijmans. I've been covering the ME since 1977 and have been a correspondent in Cairo. I started my 'Abu Pessoptimist' blog in January 2009 out of anger during the onslaught in Gaza. The other one, The Pessoptmist, is meant to be a sister version in English. (En voor de Nederlandstaligen: ik wilde in november 2009 een tweede blog in het Engels beginnen en ontdekte te laat dat als je één account hebt, een profiel dan meteen ook voor allebei de blogs geldt. Vandaar dat het nu ineens in het Engels is... So sorry.)

Monday, January 16, 2017

Bahrain executes three shia men convicted of killing police officers in 2014

Bahrain on Sunday has executed three Shia men
who were convicted of killing three police officers in a bomb attack in
March 2014, the authorities say.They were killed by a firing squad. The
executions of the three men, who Bahraini officials say were part of
the listed terrorist group Saraya al-Ashtar, are the first since a 2011
uprising, led by the Shia majority, calling for greater political
rights. A week earlier a high court upheld their convictions.
Human rights officials say there are serious concerns that evidence may have been obtained under torture.The UN's special rapporteur on extra-judicial killings, Agnes Callamard, condemned the executions in a tweet saying: "Torture, unfair trial + flimsy evidence: these are extrajudicial killings."
"This
is a black day in Bahrain's history. It is the most heinous crime
committed by the government of Bahrain and a shame upon its rulers...
This act is a security threat to Bahrain and the entire region," Sayed
Ahmed Alwadaei of the Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy told
Reuters news agency.Protests erupted in several Shia villages
over the news of the executions. When demonstrators blocked roads with
burning tyres, police responded with tear gas. Al Jazeera repirted that a city hall was set ablaze after a night of protests, but the fircould be contained.
A police officer
was wounded when his patrol came under fire on Saturday in the Shia
village of Bani Jamra, to the west of the capital Manama, the interior
ministry said.